One of China’s biggest e-commerce players and one of its biggest offline retailers are locked in a battle over the use of courier service providers.

JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce player after Alibaba Group, has earned the wrath of Suning Group, whose Tiantian Express was removed from JD.com’s platform as a shipping option.

In its overhaul of courier service providers to eliminate the “unqualified” ones, JD.com has also recommended to merchants who sell goods on its platform in a notice on Monday, to work with five couriers from the end of this month. They are the company’s JD Express, SF Express, ZTO Express, Yunda Express and STO Express.

Hopes for a merger boom in China are rising as Beijing reins in conglomerates who have gone on a debt-fueled international buying spree and instead focuses on the consolidation of the Middle Kingdom's state-owned enterprises. Bloomberg has a great opinion piece looking at how a round of mergers could boost the economy:

First, by using stronger SOEs to consolidate financially vulnerable ones, some credit risk will be diversified away from the banking system. Controlling corporate credit risk was a key policy priority highlighted at this month’s National Financial Work Conference. Second, consolidating capacity within the large SOEs could help the government’s supply-side reform agenda through state-enforced supply cuts. Finally, some mergers will strategically place large SOEs in a position to benefit from projects related to Xi’s “Belt and Road” trade and infrastructure initiative, like the combination in late 2014 of the country’s two main train producers and last year’s merger between its two biggest shipping groups.

China and India are in a standoff over contested territory in Bhutan, but the India is also concerned about the expansion of China's navy into the Indian Ocean. CNBC has a good story explaining the growing rivalry between the two Asian giants:

Indeed, the recent joint naval drills between the U.S., India and Japan — known as the Malabar exercises — were widely interpreted as a coordinated response to perceived Chinese expansion in the Indian Ocean.

In the run-up to Malabar, Indian media reported a surge in Chinese naval vessels around the area, noting sightings of 13 to 14 units in two months. Those included Luyang III class destroyers, hydrographic research vessels, an intelligence-gathering ship and a submarine.

Beijing does operate in the area for its "Belt and Road" initiative, an infrastructure program that involves developing port facilities in the Indian Ocean with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. India isn't a member of the initiative and has repeatedly indirectly criticized the program for violating Indian sovereignty.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.